In recent years, in order to increase a display size of an output image of a personal computer (PC), connection modes in which a plurality of monitors (image display apparatuses) are connected to the PC are popularly adopted. Accordingly, various settings are enabled with respect to a desktop that is formed on an operation system (OS) of a PC. Examples of a desktop include an extended desktop and an integrated desktop (refer to Patent Literature 1). An extended desktop is a desktop that is displayed on one monitor and an integrated desktop is a desktop that is displayed on two or more monitors.
In addition, there are monitors which include a plurality of input terminals (communicating units) and which are capable of combining input images input to the plurality of input terminals and displaying a high resolution image. Using such a monitor, a high resolution desktop can be displayed on the monitor. A specific example thereof will now be described.
An OS of a PC (image output apparatus) logically recognizes monitors in units of output terminals (communicating units). Therefore, in the case where four input terminals of a monitor are connected to four output terminals of a PC, an OS recognizes that four monitors are being connected although only one monitor physically exists.
In such a case, by adjusting settings of an integrated desktop so that one desktop is displayed on the four logically recognized monitors, a user can cause a high resolution desktop to be displayed on the one physically existing monitor.
Meanwhile, as a technique for maximizing capabilities of a monitor, a technique for changing capability information (information indicating capabilities of a monitor) of which a PC is notified by the monitor based on an input image is proposed (refer to Patent Literature 2).
However, in the conventional art described above, a user is unable to comprehend a correspondence relationship between a physically present monitor and a monitor that is logically recognized by an OS and, as a result, operations for setting up a desktop are complicated.
In addition, in the conventional art described above, no consideration has been given to connections between a monitor including a plurality of input terminals and a PC including a plurality of output terminals.
Therefore, there are cases where capabilities of a monitor cannot be maximized even in the case of using the conventional art described above.
An example will now be described of a case where a monitor includes four input terminals associated with four partial display areas obtained by quadrisecting a screen area and the monitor is connected to a PC using only two of the input terminals of the monitor. In this case, each of the two input terminal outputs capability information (resolution) related to the partial display area associated with the input terminal. In other words, an input terminal outputs capability information related to an area that is ¼ of the screen area. Therefore, an image with a resolution that is ¼ of a resolution of the screen is respectively output from the two output terminals (output terminals of the PC) connected to the two input terminals. As a result, an image with a resolution that is ½ of the resolution of the screen ends up being displayed on the monitor. More specifically, an image is only displayed in an area that is ½ of the area of the screen on the monitor.